Independence Days: Weeks 20 through 22

We’ve been busy this summer and I’ve not had much time to write about it!

I was privileged to go to a friend’s birth at the very end of July – it turned out to be a long birth and it took me a couple days to recover. I don’t know how those midwives do it! Also, we’ve been getting lots of yummy produce from the farm and we’ve been trying not to let any go to waste.

Also we have a lot of veggies coming on from the garden. Pictured are onions, beets, cucumbers and turnips.

I did make cherry preserves a couple weeks ago with the cherries I got to pick. Unfortunately I didn’t cook it quite long enough, so it was very thin. We’ve been using it anyway – we just pretend it’s cherry syrup. ;)

H was getting worn out from going to the farm on Tuesday and then school on Wednesdays, making Thursday really hard every week, so we switched his school day to Tuesday while E and I are at the farm. He seems to be doing much better with that schedule, which we are all happy about.

Last weekend we went to the Adams County Fair. Our friend, Richard, got us tickets to the truck pull and a parking pass, and my mom and Manuel had food coupons and a parking pass as well, so they joined us. We had a GREAT time. H loved the truck pull with all the noise and the big trucks (though I was cringing terribly from all the black diesel exhaust I was watching needlessly billow into the air – oy!), and we had a blast riding carnival rides, eating yummy carnival food (like the giant brat Rick got) and playing games. We stayed until past midnight! It was a fun treat for everyone.

This weekend I gave the bees their second jar of sugar water. Originally I wasn’t going to supplement our bees at all, but we started getting a little concerned that they might not get enough honey built up for the winter after their late start this spring. Not sure if we’ll give them more, but hopefully that will help them get a little extra stored for the winter.

We picked a lot of green grapes from the neighbor this weekend, but I’m not sure what to do with them? Anyone know of a way to preserve green grapes? Maybe make raisins?

At any rate, here’s the update:

Plant something – Rick planted beets and spinach in the strip by the driveway.

Preserve something – cherries into cherry preserves; onions hung up in the crawl space; 4 gallon size bags of corn on the cob and nearly two gallons of beans in the freezer; shredded 35 cups of zucchini: froze 30 cups and made five loaves zucchini bread; dried corn husks for making tamales this fall; made and froze double batches of pizza dough, doughnut dough, potato soup (1.5 gallons).

Waste Not – compost and recycling, scraps to chickens, etc.

Want Not – nothing.

Build Community Food Systems – nothing.

Eat the Food – we’ve been grilling pizzas using farm tomatoes, the last of our sausage, and farm basil. Otherwise, just been enjoying all the yummy summer bounty!

Howdy!

From gardens, bees and backyard chickens in the heart of Denver to starting from scratch in San Antonio. Our family of five is striving to find the simple life - the easy way. I spend my free time blogging and getting dirt under my nails along side my hard-working husband. Yay for modern housewifery, urban livestock and front yard gardens!